As a continuation for learning to coupon I have another guest post to add in! Nikki sent in some helpful tips on where you can find coupons! Now I'm sure many of you already know this info, but for those who don't please read on. Also, if you have anything to add to the list, please feel free to leave a comment with your tips!
GETTING STARTED COUPONING!
Hi! My name is Nikki Smith and I have a blog called Fru Fru Frugal (www.frufrufrugal.com). My goal at Fru Fru Frugal is to help families save money on groceries (organic and conventional), recreation, gifts, family activities and more. I would love to help you learn how to coupon and begin saving on your grocery bill. Couponing can be a great way to save your family money! Though I will not tell you that it takes very little time and effort, I will also not tell you that it takes forever and too much effort for it to be worth it! I am an avid couponer and save my family thousands of dollars by couponing each year. By the way, couponing is not just for groceries, either! You can use coupons to save money on recreation, clothing, travel, and much more!
I am going to begin by telling you the best places to get coupons. This will be very valuable to you as you will need coupons in order to coupon. HA! First, the absolute best source for your coupons is your local Sunday newspaper. I suggest buying one copy of your local Sunday newspaper for each member of your family. The cost for buying this many copies will definitely be worth it. If your local paper is $1.50 per copy and you buy four copies for a total of $6 and then you save $50 or more (and you will) then your purchase is well worth it! Why buy so many papers, you ask? Well, in order to save money couponing, you really need to "stockpile". Stockpiling is really just buying several of one item at one time while it is at the lowest price so that you do not pay the highest price for that item each week. For example, most of us buy cereal each week at around $3.99 per box. If that same cereal is on sale for $2.50 per box and you have a coupon for $1.00 off, then you will now be paying $1.50 for a $4 box of cereal. Should you not buy SEVERAL boxes of cereal this week while it is on sale so that you are not paying full price each week for that cereal? YES, YOU SHOULD! But the catch is that you have to have the coupons to buy several boxes, hence the copies of the newspaper!
The next best place to get coupons is the internet! The internet is a vast resource for coupons and pairing the internet printables (IP) with your newspaper coupons is a coupon windfall! You will save tons just using these two resources! The best places to get couopns on the internet are www.coupons.com, www.redplum.com, www.eversave.com, www.coolsavings.com and www.moneysavingmom.com! Each of these oupons sites requires the installation of coupon printers, but as long as you are downloading the printer from these NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED sites, then the software is definitely safe.
Some other great sites to get coupons from the internet are from your local stores! Stores have their own coupons that you can use "stack" with a manufacturer coupon (those that you get from the sites above and the newspaper). You can go to your local stores website and you will usually find a link to coupons on their site. Most of the time these will NOT be manufacturer coupons and you will be able to use them with a manufacturer coupon.
Free sample sites are great ways to get sample items for free, but they are also a great way to get coupons. Most of the time, when you receive a sample, you will receive high dollar value ($1 or more) coupons with your sample. The absolute best resource for free samples is at www.vocalpoint.com! I have gotten the best samples ever from Vocalpoint. I have received full size shampoos, dryer bars and more from this great company. Another great free sample site is www.startsampling.com. They will often send you great samples with coupons as well. Also, at times, different companies will offer free samples online. You can find a couponing blog, like www.frufrufrugal.com to follow and they will link you with the available free samples! Coupon blogs will also link you up with deals for your particular store matched with any available coupons! How great is that? A word of caution, however, never pay for any service to match up the deals at your local grocery store with the coupons available. There are too many coupon blogs that do that for free!
Another great online resource for coupons is just writing or emailing your favorite companies. I once complained to Pampers because of faulty diapers (the adhesive tab kept coming off) and we received several $5 and $7 off coupons. That incident began my journey of writing and emailing companies to praise them AND to let them know if I was genuinely unhappy with a product! To date, I have received many coupons from companies that make products that I use every day. Along this same line, sign up for the newsletters and anything else that your favorite companies offer. They often send you valuable coupons for the items that you buy either in their store (clothing, recreation, etc.). Again, coupon blogs can be valuable sources for information for this. Many times, I will let my readers know of a particular dining establishment or clothing store or recreation outlet that has coupons for those that use those services. Use these blogs as a means to save!
There are also some services that will clip your coupons for you! The best of these companies are www.couponclippers.com and www.weusecoupons.com. You can go to these websites and choose how many of any particular coupon you would like and they will send them to you for a nominal fee! Pretty cool, huh? If you are wondering why in the world would someone need this service? Think about that cereal example or what if your favorite toilet paper was on sale (with coupon) for $2 for a 12 pack and you only had one coupon. Wouldn't you want several coupons so that you could stock up on that and save money each week? I would!
Lastly, you can always ask friends and neighbors for their coupons (if they subscribe to the local newspaper), you could go to the local recycling center on Mondays and see if you can get some recycled coupons from the day before. You can also hold a coupon swap with your friends.
I hope you have enjoyed this post on where to get your coupons. Please visit me at www.frufrufrugal.com or feel free to email me at frufrufrugal@hotmail.com if you have any questions!
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